South Africa vs England: Stuart Broad’s spells will help vibrant youth

Stuart Broad’s most recent international appearance in coloured clothing came in a meaningless and decidedly grey fixture against Afghanistan in Sydney in March.

That match brought the curtain down on England’s dismal World Cup campaign. It also appeared to signal the end of Broad’s one-day career after 119 appearances.

Last summer, England moved on in every sense. Without Broad and Jimmy Anderson – two of the country’s top three ODI wicket-takers – England barely batted an eyelid, beating New Zealand before narrowly losing out to Australia.

Before Christmas, Trevor Bayliss’s side thumped Pakistan in the UAE, playing the kind of cricket that appeared way beyond previous England teams.

On Wednesday in Bloemfontein, Broad’s nine-month one-day hiatus is likely to come to an end. The side he is returning to could not be more different from the one that stumbled through the World Cup.

Bristling with aggression, this team appears to be a mirror image of Broad, a man who specialises in the kind of in-your-face cricket that marks this side out as one of the most exciting in the global game.

His performances in the Test series in South Africa suggest he has plenty more to offer in the 50-over game. Broad took 18 wickets at a cost of just 20 as England pulled off a shock 2-1 series win. He also bowled another of his match-turning spells by claiming 6 for 17 as South Africa were skittled for just 83 in front of a disbelieving Wanderers crowd in Johannesburg.

Of Broad’s 15 Test five-fers, seven have come in a single session – a remarkable statistic and an illustration of the kind of magic dust that the 29-year-old is capable of sprinkling at a rate almost unparalleled in Test history.

“We’ve seen how he gets on a roll and the crowd get him going, either in a supportive way or abusive way, and that seems to get him going,” says England selector Mike Newell, who is also his county coach at and Nottinghamshire.

“He takes games that are pretty even and just turns them on their head. He does sometimes turn it on to a level that is way in advance of everyone else in the match. The Ashes spell [at Trent Bridge last summer] when he took 8 for 15, it wasn’t that the others were bowling badly, he was just bowling at a level that was far greater. It was the same at Johannesburg. Some of his returns are schoolboy figures really.

“I don’t know what it is with him, whether it’s the battle, the motivation or just the competition that he thrives on. He senses the moment that he can really make a difference to his team.”

Certainly England’s one-day side will be a stronger with him in it, while the knowledge and experience he brings to this young and vibrant outfit will also be invaluable. But with ODIs having changed almost out of all recognition in the past decade, it’s Broad’s uncanny ability to take wickets that could prove most important now.

“Restricting runs in modern one-day cricket is so hard,” says Newell. “Fielding restrictions, the skill of the batsmen, the weight of the bats, even the size of the grounds. The only way to keep the scoring rates low is to keep taking wickets.

“Obviously Stuart brings a huge amount of experience to the team and what he brings also is skill and pace. He came into replace [Steve] Finn and [Liam] Plunkett, who are bowlers with real pace, and Stuart has that ability to give England something very different. We have a lot of variation in that side now.”

What they don’t have is Broad’s opening partner and the leading Test and one-day wicket-taker, Anderson. When the pair were left out after the World Cup it was widely assumed that both would now be spared for England’s Test battles.

It was a ploy that worked, with the two spearheading England’s successful efforts to regain the Ashes on home soil last summer. But with Broad now back in the fold – albeit as a result of injury to others – is there a chance of them being reunited in the one-day side?

“I don’t think anybody has closed the door unless the player announces his retirement,” says Newell. “What we’re hoping is that these new bowlers that have emerged over the last seven or eight months in David Willey, Reece Topley, Chris Woakes and Finn are going to carry this team into the future.”

That future looks much brighter than it did when Broad and England exited the World Cup with the heads bowed low. How long he is a part of it might depend on how much star dust he still has stored away.